The Perks of Being a Magizoologist
by hollyhobbit101
Summary: Newt hummed softly as he stroked the fur of the poor, trembling creature he'd discovered a few hours ago. It had beautiful fur, kaleidoscope eyes, and... a penchant for shoelaces?


**A/N: For the Houses Competition. As a kind of colour translation, eburnean is like ivory.**

 **House: Ravenclaw**

 **Year: 5**

 **Prompts: Discovery, eburnean, shoelaces**

 **Word count: 1176**

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Newt hummed quietly as he stroked the soft, eburnean fur of the creature he'd discovered a few hours ago. It quivered as he cradled it, its wide, fearful eyes flitting this way and that as it scanned its surroundings.

"Hello," he murmured, gently shushing the creature. It slowly began to calm under Newt's touch, eventually settling itself comfortably in his palm. "What might you be then?"

He lifted it up into the light, carefully examining it's features. It was a small thing, covered with beautiful fur. Newt was sure that other wizards would pay thousands to use it for clothes or pillows or something else that was just as barbaric.

"Not that I'm going to let that happen to you," he reassured it as he continued stroking it. It really was very elegant, almost perfectly white but for the slight yellow tint of ivory. Eburnean, Newt decided, was the best fit for this. He quickly jotted it down in his notes, then went back to studying the creature.

The eyes were its most interesting feature, besides the fur. They seemed to change colour, one second a bright orange, and the next a dull grey. Newt watched its eyes for a second, then reached suddenly for a mirror, an idea occurring to him. He held it in front of the creature, so that it was staring at its own reflection. The creature's eyes immediately flashed a pure eburnean, squeaking happily as it recognised itself in the mirror. Newt smiled, putting the mirror down and resuming his stroking of the creature - what he now thought to be an Elephas. Fascinating creatures - almost useless on the magical front, but Newt was sure it had something special lurking beneath the surface.

Suddenly, a loud bang sounded from outside, startling both Newt and the Elephas. It curled itself into a ball, turning into a trembling sphere of eburnean in Newt's hands. He frowned and poked his head out the door, quickly spotting Jacob descending the steps down into the suitcase. Newt shook his head in exasperation, then headed out to greet Jacob, the still shaking Elephas held close to his body.

"Oh, hey, Newt, I-" Jacob started, before being cut off by Newt shushing him. He furrowed his brows in confusion, then spotted the creature in Newt's arms, and his expression cleared. "Who's this little guy?" he asked, voice much lower this time.

Newt beckoned back into the room he had just vacated, setting the Elephas down on the workbench. Jacob stared at it as he sank down into a nearby chair, thankfully keeping quiet. They didn't speak for a few minutes as Newt set about calming the creature once more, murmuring softly to it, stroking its fur. Eventually, it stopped the terrified shaking and instead seemed to cheer up remarkably, happily puttering across the bench, getting a feel for its new surroundings. Newt watched it with a fond smile on his face as the sun turned the eburnean of its fur to white, sometimes steering the creature back onto a safe path when it threatened to walk off the edge of the surface.

"This fellow here is an Elephas," he told Jacob proudly, still not taking his eyes off it. He heard Jacob move a little closer, and half turned so he could see him in his periphery.

"Um… A what now?" Jacob asked, clearly confused.

"An Elephas," Newt repeated. "I found him earlier, hiding in the streets. I'm not sure why he was here - they're very shy creatures. And very rare."

"Not so smart, either, huh?" Jacob commented, as Newt once again had to stop the Elephas from dropping off the bench.

Newt smiled. "They're not especially known for their intelligence, no," he admitted. He thought for a second, then turned to Jacob, an idea coming to him.

"Give me your shoelaces," he said, bending down to undo his own.

"What?" Jacob burst out, surprised.

"Your shoelaces, I need them," Newt said, matter of fact. "Come on, chop chop."

Too stunned to even bother arguing, Jacob bent over and undid his shoelaces, handing them over to Newt once he'd pulled them free.

"What are you doing?" he asked but, true to form, Newt didn't reply, too engrossed in his work. He shuffled objects around on the bench so that they formed a wide rectangle, then set about tying the shoelaces to the objects, forming a makeshift fence to keep the creature inside.

 _Huh. Smart,_ Jacob thought.

"That should keep him safe for now," Newt said, probably mostly to himself. He watched the Elephas test out the new border, smiling softly as it rubbed against the shoelaces, leaving a small pile of eburnean fur behind. It gave a squeak of happiness, then settled itself against the barrier.

"Aw, that's kinda cute," Jacob said, leaning closer to look.

"Keep an eye on it for me," Newt told him, standing up and disappearing before Jacob could even react.

Jacob sighed and shook his head, but kept watching the Elephas. He reached out a finger to stroke it as he had seen Newt doing earlier, but hesitated before he could touch the creature. The last thing he wanted to do was spook it again, especially now that Newt was gone. Instead, he settled for humming songs his grandma had taught him, something the creature seemed to like. Well, it wasn't curled into a frightened ball again anyway, which was something.

Newt came back not long after, hands full with shoelaces of all sizes and colours. Jacob stared, nonplussed.

"What, did you take those off of every shoe you own or something?" he asked.

"Yes," Newt murmured.

"Oh, Tina's gonna love that," Jacob pointed out, but Newt didn't seem to hear him, busying himself with the shoelaces. Jacob craned his neck to see what he was doing, but for the life of him couldn't work out what Newt hoped to achieve.

A few minutes later, Newt straightened, seemingly satisfied with his handiwork. Which had amounted to… A pile of shoelaces. Jacob frowned.

"What… Oh," he said, as realisation set in. Newt carefully lifted the Elephas out of the improvised pen and settled it gently into its new shoelace nest. The creature burrowed itself deeper, then sighed, its eyes slipping closed. If not for its breathing, it could easily have been mistaken for an eburnean-coloured ball of fluff.

"What you gonna do with it?" Jacob asked softly.

"For now, I'm going to keep it safe here," Newt replied. "Tomorrow, I'm going to go and see if I can discover any more of these. They're incredibly rare; if I can breed some here, maybe I can save them from extinction."

"Well, you've done it before," Jacob encouraged. "I mean, probably. I'm sure you have. Anyway, what you gonna call it?"

"What do you think?" Newt asked.

"Jeez, I don't know. You discovered it; you get to name it."

Newt thought for a moment, then smiled. "Ebur," he said simply, running a finger gently through the eburnean fur.

Jacob smiled too, nodding. "Yeah. That seems about right."

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 **A/N: I hope that was okay. Thanks for reading, and please leave a review if you have a moment!**


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